Wednesday, February 10, 2016

William Dunbar's Lament For The Makers - 1

[William Dunbar (1460-1520)]

AG: (searching through his anthology)(Is (Robert) Creeley ….in the Norton book?… yeah, one-two-two-five..yeah, I think that
might be… One-two-two-five, that might’ve been it?…No. I’ll find it, there is some poem of
his that’s like that.

So we have (William) Dunbar’s "Lament for the Poets" or "Lament for theMakers" – You rememberpoesiswas making, making - “makeles” here – 15th-16th century.
It’s (this poem's) like my own poem, "Howl", in theme and subject . It’s a lament for all the
poets that he knew that lived and died, that he knew of.

So, actually, it’s
his.. it’s a recitation of his lineage, an outline of who the poets were that influenced him, William Dunbar.

Is Pat O’Brien here ? – [to Pat O'Brien - Student] - (You want to try to read
it?You have a good.. you got a
good.. is this a good text? I have a couple of texts here that.. maybe the one we have in the Oxford book
is better?

Pat O’Brien: (.. (Norton) - page seventy-two)

AG: I’ll be up here tho’ – Can you help out (since you know
the language)?

Student (P O'B) I can just do this in common Middle
English. I’m not very good at Middle Scots

AG: Well, is it Middle Scots?

Student (P O'B) Yeah, you've got to give it the Scots, roll the "r"s andso
forth, and I can't do any of that.

AG: Okay

Student (P O'B): “Lament to the Makers"

AG: Is that makers and not muckers?

Student (P O'B): Yeah

AG: Makers?

Student (P O'B): Right, well, you might say mucker

AG: Muckers?

Student (P O'B): But in general, you don’t pronounce the “i-s” after a vowel in Middle Scots (except when you feel it!)

AG: Okay ..and it’s "while he was sek?" – right?Student (P O'B): RightAG: In our
book, we don’t have that. The full title is "Lament to the Makers When He Was
Sek” -Q-W-H-E-N - "Qwhen he was Sek" (S-E-K} – You might write that in - Q-W-H-E-N… Q-W-H-..Student (PO'B): Q-U?AG: I have “Q-W” herein the.. What do you have? Do they have that one?Student (PO'B): Q-U-H-E..AG: Q-U-H-E-N – he has Q-U-H-E-N, I have Q-W-H-E-N, so we take a
choice – "Whan he was sek" – S-E-K